Yes, its indeed a lift, but I'm amazed at the way Anand Raaj Anand (ARA) has 'Punjabicized' the song - in fact he has borrowed very little from the original - but the direct give away is the opening which sounds similar not only in tune but also in the pronunciation of the words! The original
is from Zehava Ben's 1994 album 'Looking Forward'. The song was titled 'What will be' and was part of Claude Challe's famed Buddha Bar series (this particular song was in Volume 1 and her name was mentioned as
Zeava Ben!). Now an Israeli song converted into a traditional Punjabi ditty is something worth talking about! ARA deserves both a pat and a kick for adapting the song beautifully in Punjabi and lifting it off an Israeli track without credit.

Trivia note on Zaheva Ben: 31 year old Israeli singer Zehava Ben is one of the most popular female vocalists in the Mizrahi genre, one of the main practitioners of the Turkish style of singing which has come to dominate Oriental music in the '90s. She was born in the capital city of Southern Israel (The Negev), Beer-Sheva, in a poverty, crime and drug struck neighborhood. Zehava became familiar in 1990, when the title track of a film she took part in, called "Tipat mazal" (A bit of luck), sung by her of course, became a hit all over Israel, mostly among the Ex-Asian and Ex-North African population.

Zehava is very proud of her Moroccan heritage, and most of her music is quite distinctive of that. Zehava has appeared in many music festivals outside Israel, namely in Sweden and France. Zehava is also known to be popular in many Middle-Eastern countries, even if officially her music is banned since she is Israeli. Zehava appeared in the 1996 election campaign for 'Meretz' (left wing civil rights movement), singing the famous 'Shir lashalom' (Song for peace).

DJ Cheb i Sabbah has filed
a suit against the makers of 'Plan' for
allegedly using his song, 'Kese Kese' in their soundtrack. Anand Raaj
Anand could probably seek refuge in one point - that his song happens to
be based on Raag Mishra Darbari, similar to Cheb i Sabbah's
original...but when you compare note-to-note, its a shameless, unabashed
lift.

Its time Alabnia sued the makers and the composer of the movie 'Plan', following DJ Cheb i
Sabbah.
Its a typical, shameless and mindless rip off that Anand Raaj Anand has mastered
in the recent past, besides mastering the art of swearing that he never copies. Simply blaming the director (The director, Sanjay Gupta, denies that he asked Anand to lift the DJ Cheb i Sabbah track Kese
Kese) might not help Anand any more. Again, its quite incredible that Anand gets paid for this!

Trivia Notes: Alabina is a rather interesting mix of
Ishtar, a trained Israeli Fighter Pilot and a group of 4 gypsy cousins from Montpellier!
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